Intelligence

News about Intelligence, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Mar. 17, 2015

Joshua Hartshorne and Laura Germine study in journal Psychological Science challenges commonly held view that different elements of cognition, such as short term memory, peak at specific times during life and that aging brains are generally in state of decline; study and others like it show more nuanced view of brain development, with social intelligence peaking later in life. MORE

May. 31, 2014

Supreme Court ruling that states can no longer rely on fixed IQ cutoff to decide intellectual competency increases likelihood that roughly 30 death row inmates will have a chance to avoid execution; fewer defendants are also less likely to wind up on death row in future because their claims of intellectual disabilities will not be as readily discounted by courts. MORE

May. 29, 2014

Supreme Court ruling throwing out Florida’s strict IQ cutoff in death penalty cases will require nine states to come up with new standards for determining which inmates claiming mental disabilities can be sentenced to death; legal experts say decision could increase the number of inmates exempt from execution because they are deemed mentally disabled. MORE

May. 28, 2014

Supreme Court rules, in decision continuing trend toward limiting capital punishment, that Florida's IQ score cutoff is too rigid to fairly decide which mentally disabled individuals must be spared the death penalty; ruling suggests that Florida and as many as eight other states will now be required to take a less mechanical approach to mental disability in capital cases. MORE

Apr. 10, 2014

Scientists are studying limits of the intelligence of crows in order to better understand how they think; study published in journal PLoS One brings into question crows' ability to think abstractly and whether they understand cause and effect. MORE

Apr. 8, 2014

Kenneth Chang Time Travel column on test developed by psychologist Joseph F Fagan III that can predict infants' scores on intelligence tests years later; test, which Fagan hoped would be used to provide assistance to children of lower intelligence, has not been widely used due to resistance to dividing children by IQ. MORE

Dec. 13, 2012

Nicholas D Kristof Op-Ed column highlights work of New Zealand scholar James R Flynn, who has documented way in which average intelligence of humans has risen over time; contends it is good to remember essential fact that talent is universal and opportunity is not universal as country prepares to make hard budget choices. MORE

Nov. 4, 2012

Number of 'brain training' franchises nationwide attempt to improve students' cognitive skills by exercises developed by psychologists as tests of mental abilities; training, originally created with adult students in mind, is being embraced by students and their parents hoping to improve academic performance. MORE

Nov. 4, 2012

Social scientist James R Flynn has spent more than 25 years trying to explain why each generation has significantly higher IQ scores than previous one; some of his theories are explained in his book Are We Getting Smarter? Rising IQ in the Twenty-First Century. MORE

Oct. 23, 2012

Scientists have been attempting without much success to isolate genes that account for people's intelligence level; developmental neurogeneticist Kevin Mitchell has posited that genetics are most likely to affect variations in intelligence by causing mutations that can erode it. MORE

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